But the developers of the Couch-to-5K App (read a thorough description about it here) and friends who have used it tell me that even beginners can work their way up to running a 5K with this program, hence the "Couch" part of the name.

So, I bit. About a week ago, I paid my 99 cents and downloaded the Couch-to-5K App to my iPhone. So far, I pretty much just swipe through my phone, look at the pretty blue icon and make sure it's still there.

But that's about as far as I've gotten. I get to the "Week 1, Day 1 Workout," and I freak out.

I start to have scary flashbacks of high school basketball conditioning — the long runs up the football stadium steps, down around the pond, back up the steps and back around the pond.

There were the "Indian Runs" around the perimeter of the school gym where Coach would yell out the name of one of us from the back of the pack, and we'd have to race to front. Or the "Suicide" sprints.

Or — oh God, I'm getting sick just thinking about them — the runs around the outside track circling the football field. One day during conditioning, as the marching band practiced in the parking lot nearby, I blew chunks EVERYWHERE as I crossed the finish line of a measly 1-mile run.

And that was, well, a few years ago. Now, here I am at age 30-something thinking that running 3.1 miles sounds like a good idea?

For some reason, when I start to lose weight, I think I have super powers or something. It was just a month or two into my weight loss last year that I signed up to do the Warrior Dash. Kapow!

But during that race last summer, I walked it. Sure, I climbed, slogged and jumped my way through nine out of 10 obstacles of everything from mud to fire to rope walls, but I walked the entire 3.1 miles.

I wanna run it.

I signed up for this year's Warrior Dash immediately after last year's race. It's the last weekend in July. I have time to prepare.

The Couch-to-5K App claims I'll be running a 5K in nine weeks if I follow the program religiously. We'll see.

I've been back on the weight loss wagon, having lost 20 pounds since Jan. 1. I'm down a total of 48 pounds since my all-time high in 2010, but it's been a roller coaster. I put quite a bit of weight back on during the second half of last year and have spent the first weeks of 2012 just working to get that back off.

4 comments:

I started the couch to 5K sometime last year or the year before. I didn't get all the way through it. I didn't quit because it was hard to do just because it was hard to find time because Sydney was less than a year old. However I have started running again. I'm up to 2 miles now. Working toward 3.1. In October I am planning to do the Color Run in Nashville. Like you I want to run it do that is my motivation. I know you can do it. You have it in you, just have to push! If it were easy everyone would do it!! I'll be cheering you on from my treadmill.